jd580's Full Review: Dell Inspiron™ E1505 PC Notebook
While shopping around for a laptop to replace my Toshiba a45, the Dell e1505 seemed like a good fit. I wanted dedicated graphics however, at first the Dell did not offer that. But after a few weeks that became an option.
I have looked at many other laptops and they all did not come close to all of the features that the e1505 has, including the low price.
So for around $1,150 after coupons, it was a great deal.
These are the specs:
-Intel Core Duo T2300 (1.66ghz)
-1gb DDR2 memory
-80gb 5400rpm HDD
-15.4" Truelife dsisplay (1280x800 resolution)
-ATI mobility radeon x1400 (256mb)
-9 cell battery
-Windows Media Center Edition 2005
-8x DVD burner/24x CD-RW drive
Shipping on this notebook was very fast. Dell projected a longer shipping time than it took to receive my computer.
Now the details…
The Screen:
The screen I ordered was the base one with the truelife coating. It is very vibrant and clear, although there is some glare from sunlight from time to time. There is also a small amount of light leakage at the base of the screen; however it is nothing too bothersome.
Speakers:
The e1505's speakers are wonderful to listen to. While there is not much bass, they seem above average compared to other laptops.
The Processor:
The reason I was looking at the e1505 was for its Core Duo processor. This is a new processor from Intel that includes 2 execution cores each running at 1.66ghz. This will allow for users to multitask. For example you can be encoding a video while watching a DVD movie! Or, if you prefer, you can be playing a processor intensive game while you covert audio or video files in the background. I have done this and both tasks performed smoothly. I have run Super Pi benchmark on this computer and I got a time of 1min. 23 seconds when calculating Pi to 2 million digits. On my old Toshiba a45, this took over 4 and a half minutes!
Heat and Noise:
The e1505 is very quiet while under light usage such as web browsing or word processing. However, the fan does turn on occasionally and this is not too bothersome. The fan is very quiet and only gets louder under intense gaming. Even then I can barely hear the fan. As far as heat goes, the laptop remains quite cool. It only becomes warmer when multitasking or running intensive programs.
Battery:
I decided to order the 9 cell battery. I mostly use my laptop on my desk, however I thought it would be nice to have longer battery life when I am away from my desk. With wi-fi off and the screen at almost the lowest brightness level, I can get around 6 hours of battery life while typing using Microsoft Word. With wi-fi on and the screen at a low setting, I can get around 4 ˝ to 5 hours of battery life. Overall, I am very impressed with the battery life. It is more than adequate for my purposes.
Keyboard/Touchpad:
The keyboard on the e1505 is excellent to work on. I do not notice any keyboard flex. The touchpad is also pretty good. I love the large buttons for the touchpad. They don’t make a loud click sound which I enjoy.
Ports/Connections:
These are the ports and connections that the e1505 has:
- 4 USB 2.0 ports (2 on right side, 2 on rear)
- Headphone and microphone jack
- 5 in 1 memory card reader
- External VGA connection
- Firewire port
- S-video port
- Express card slot
- Ethernet port
- Modem port
Software:
One feature that I enjoy using is the Media Direct feature. There is a button on the computer that you can push while the computer is off or in hibernation mode where you can get access to media on your laptop. Using this software you can: watch a DVD, view pictures, watch video on the hard drive, or listen to music. This feature will be useful if you do not need to boot up windows entirely which makes for a fast start-up.
When I first received my laptop there was a good amount of junk software that was on the hard drive. But when I deleted most of it, the computer became a little faster.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1,150 Operating System: Windows Processor: Other Processor speed: over 1000 Screen Size: 15 inches RAM: More than 256 Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 (2x1.73GHz), 15.4 inch wide screen LCD, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, 120GB SATA Hardrive, 256MB ATI Video Card X1400, 8X DVD+/-RW double-lay...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.